Wayne Keys thought he would be finished drag racing for a very long time when he had a devastating crash in his Holden Monaro at Perth Motorplex.
It was at December 28’s Night of Fire event that Keys’ Monaro had a major braking issue and charged into the emergency sand trap at the end of the track at high speed. The car hit the catch nets still doing 170kmh.
“After the meeting I thought we were done for a while,” he said. “I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself, I just thought it was too much work.
“But last Wednesday I started mulling things over and looking at what parts of the body (badly damaged in the crash) we had left and it seemed like it might come together if we had luck on our side.”
Keys said so far that has been just the case, with parts becoming available and a large amount of people gathering to help him rebuild for this Saturday’s Aeroflow Outlaw Nitro Funny Car event.
“The plan is to be there, there are a few hurdles to jump but we are getting there,” he said. “We do have some issues with the carbon fibre injector hat, but I do have another option to borrow one if I can speak nicely to some people.
“The fibreglass on the body work won’t be Rolls Royce but if it is safe, that is all I care about.”
In fact, safety has been top of mind in all areas of the rebuild for keys. His first step was to get a chassis inspector around to give the Monaro a once over and ensure his repairs would meet the standards needed to reach his 400kmh top speeds.
“I showed him what I intended to do, I talked him though and he was happy,” he said.
“We have had a bunch of people lining up to help with the re-assembly, the motor has been apart and is going back together. I am waiting on some bits from the United States and that could be an issue, but I have a back up plan to raid Rob Pilkington’s Top Alcohol Funny Car for some fuel lines and stuff – people have been unbelievable in their support.”
The list of repairs so far have been something that would ordinarily take months to accomplish, but Keys is confident they can make the deadline thanks to the many hands making light work.
“There was major repairs needed on the roll cage, body and everything above the bonnet in regards to the fuel system which was pulled off the car by the catch net.
“We need to do this, the pit crew works hard for us and we need to get back out there if we can.”
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